last year i started my journey to a healthier me and i made it my goal to lose 15lbs and get my muscles back. i was hugely successful and a large part of it was because of everyone's on-going support, tweets, and comments so thanks to all of you lovely folks!
now, let's get this party started.
the other day, i stumbled across this shocking visual:
seriously, how gross is this?
looking at all that fat in a lump like that is gross enough but to realize that i had that distributed all over my body stunned me. i lost close to 20lbs (i think) so that giant lump at the bottom was me. yuck!
if that doesn't motivate you to stick to your weight loss/get healthy program, then i don't know what will.
now, let's talk about the scale.
you know... that lying son of a bitch asshole object that tells you nothing but lies and makes you loathe yourself. yeah, that scale.
throw that thing away. for real.
go into your garage, take that hammer and put a hammer-sized hole through your scale because the scale is the worst thing you can use to gauge your progress.
while it's good to use weight as a reference at the beginning and end of your program, constantly obsessing about it is useless because anything can throw off your number - where you are in your period. what you ate. if you're on your period. if what you ate is making you gassy/bloated... ANYTHING. because of this very fact, because that the scale is inaccurate to begin with, why obsess over a number that isn't correct anyway? you'll just drive yourself crazy.
let me tell you something else: while you're working out, you are toning/conditioning your muscles. if you're also lifting, you're gaining (more) lean muscle mass. over the course of your program/healthy journey, you really only should lose roughly 10-25lbs (unless you're severely obese) simply because the fat you lost should be replaced by muscle.
take a look at this picture:
pound for pound, 5lbs of fat will be the same weight as 5lbs of muscle but look at the difference in volume ! muscle is more dense and therefore, takes up LESS SPACE than fat which further illustrates my point -- the scale is not what you should use to gauge your progress; you should be meeasuring your progress by the number of inches lost.
going back to my point about only losing a 10-25lbs over the course of your get-healthy program - when you lose fat and gain the weight back in muscle, you not only look leaner/thinner, you also help increase your caloric burn even at rest because your body burns more calories maintaining muscle than it does with fat. that's right, bitches: even when you're laying on your couch being all lazy and doing nothing, your body is continuously burning calories which helps with long-term weight management. does it burn a hell of a lot more calories? not really, but every little bit counts, right?
so ladies, don't be afraid to get your lift on! you will not bulk up, grow a penis and look all man-like (we don't have the testosterone levels to do that) but you'll look badass, fit and strong.
